Ruth Cofer Cemetery

Ruth Cofer
Cemetery is located in Chattanooga, TN off I-75 North. It sits behind the US
Express Corporate office on Lee Highway at Jenkins Rd.

The "Ruth
Cofer Memorial Cemetery" was so named by the County Council of Hamilton County
(now the Hamilton County Commission) in a Resolution passed October 2, 1974. It
is the official name; it was changed from its former official name "Hamilton
County Memorial Park." "Potters' Field" is a name that seems to crop up in the
newspapers over the years, and is a common name for such cemeteries in cities
around America. The Resolution is a public document in Hamilton County
Commission files. The best information on the matter is the "clippings file" at
the Hamilton County-Chattanooga Bicentennial Library, under "Cemeteries" (or
perhaps they have a specific file for the "Ruth Cofer Memorial Cemetery" but
it's been a while since I copied all the articles dealing with this cemetery).

The Cofer cemetery was officially opened July 1, 1933, by rule of County Judge
Will Cummings (of Cummings Highway). The first appointed official to handle the
transportation and burial of the dead there was assigned to a man named Cyrus
Russell Brown. He was also, "...the assistant superintendent of the William L.
Bork Memorial hospital, county transfer agent for persons of unsound mind and
indigent persons, server of warrants in lunacy cases, and driver of the county
ambulance on emergency calls" (Chattanooga Times, April 1, 1934, page 13). The
County was forced into the burial business because of the Great Depression
because the then-contractor had to go up on price (raised from $25 a burial!).
Burials may have actually begun when the County acquired the Cofer hillside in
'27, but it was not the official "potters field" yet.

Here is quick time line I've reconstructed from the clippings file, beginning
with the Chattanooga Times May 25, 1911, article on the poor conditions (exposed
human remains) at the old "pauper's cemetery," which was located in "Hill City,"
now known to everyone as North Chattanooga. This prompted action to do
something, including grand jury indictments against the sexton, J.C. Hale, who
died with the indictments looming over him, but as you can see, nothing was done
until 1933. It was most of a bumpy day's wagon ride to get out to the old
cemetery in Hill City and back again.

9-1-1935 - Over 500 burials at "Silverdale" recorded since it's inception

1949 - TN state mandates bodies to go to Memphis medical school, unless "unfit"
for such purpose (decomposed, etc.); number of burials at Cofer drops off
drastically.

6-30-1959
- Reports approx. 300 burials; the reported number drops from the 1935 article
either because of miscounting, or more likely, headstones had become lost. This
article also states Chattanooga's
earliest "potter's field" is believed to have been in the ravine below the "Pine
Breeze Sanatorium," now razed, just to the south of Chattanooga High School (now
Chattanooga liberal arts magnet school). It states that there are some
"...rusty iron markers still stand in the underbrush-choked ravine below the
sanatorium to mark the existence of the unremembered hundreds who are buried
there." Hundreds...? Do you have a house there now?

12-11-1965
- County still using "Hamilton
County Memorial Park" (Cofer) but not as much due to the medical school
mandate. This article states the earliest potter's field was located "...behind
Pine Breeze Sanatorium, on a hillside off Midvale Avenue adjoining a tract of
land owned by Attorney William A. Schoolfield, the father of County Councilman
Raulston Schoolfield
and William B. Schoolfield of Chattanooga." Still no word on where an earlier
"potters field" was before this Hill City potters field.

11-10-74 - County Judge Don Moore visits the "Hamilton County Memorial Park"
(Cofer) at the urging of Ruth Cofer, and was "dismayed" at it's condition; sets
wheels in motion to repair and rename. Silverdale gets a make over and name
change. Ms. Cofer was head of the Women's Auxiliary at the nearby Hamilton
County Nursing Home (now Health Center at Standifer Place).

Present-day - still in use as indigent burial location.

The area out there with the very small, numbered-only stones are the children
victims of an early 1900's plague that swept the city. Some of these stones
have become removed (presumably due to vandalism) over the years, and someone
has lined all the loose ones on the ground into the shape of a cross. Not a bad
idea since their original locations are lost.

Cyrus Brown and
the William L. Bork Memorial hospital, seen on the USGS map, have something to
do with all this. It is my belief that unclaimed people from that hospital (and
the Silverdale workhouse) most likely occupy the "unknown" and/or unmarked
graves at Cofer cemetery. In researching this, I asked Ray Wilson at Ham. County
Microfilm to be on the lookout for any documents, old or new, dealing with that
old hospital. Thanks be to Ray, for he discovered the hand-written ledger of
the names of the people who were put into the hospital (not the jail). This
large book was almost thrown out in purging some records, but Ray saved it from
destruction and has even microfilmed it so we all have a second copy. I believe
at least
some of the people in that book are buried at Cofer. The patient's name never
made it out to the cemetery with the body but rather was logged at the hospital
and with the courthouse, but those records seem to be lost. But the original
Bork hospital entry ledger is safe, even listing the condition for which the
person was admitted. In the attached document I explain the process of how to
receive a "county burial" and what one gets with that. My beef is that funeral
homes make the decision about a family's "need," and forwards their
recommendation to the Department of Corrections for the burial, which I do not
think is scrutinized enough by (most) funeral homes. The County should have a
final say in eligibility for a burial at county expense. After all, the County
has not relinquished its "burial business" since it was forced into it by the
Great Depression.

Names of individuals in this cemetery were
recorded as they appeared on the tombstones. No attempt was made to
correct obvious errors or differences in spelling. Every attempt has
been made to record this information correctly. However, mistakes are
possible. The information on this page may NOT be reproduced in
any format for profit or presentation by any other person or
organization without the written consent of the contributor, the legal
representative of the submitter, or The Hamilton County Tennessee
Genealogy Society.